MUMBAI (Reuters) – Controversy in India over Amazon’s political drama “Tandav” has brought Bollywood and global video streaming giants to the forefront, prompting a closer look at the text of possible offenses against religious sentiments in a major growth market.
Companies like Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix are investigating targeted programs and scripts, and some are even deleting scenes that could be controversial, five Bollywood directors and producers have said.
This comes as Amazon Prime Video became embroiled in lawsuits and police complaints alleging that “Tandav” portrayed Hindu gods and goddesses in a derogatory manner and insulted religious beliefs. ‘Tandav’, a Hindi word meaning anger, plays the leading Bollywood actors.
Public outrage over obscenity and religious imagery is common in culturally sensitive India, but the “Tandav” issue collapsed when police questioned Amazon India’s original content head for Prime Video after official complaints.
Fearing arrest, Aparna Purohit filed a preliminary bail plea, which was rejected by a state court, but the Supreme Court granted her protection against arrest on Friday.
“Scripts are now being read and re-read,” said a producer from Bollywood, India’s Hindi film industry. “Streaming platforms rate content for everything they see as a red flag,” the producer added, declining to be named.
Amazon has decided to postpone a new season of a popular Hindi spy thriller, ‘The Family Man’, which was to be released last month, four of the sources told Reuters.
The show, Amazon says, is about the efforts of an Indian intelligence officer in his “high pressure and low-paying job”.
While Amazon declined to comment, one source said the delay was a “ripple effect of what happened to Tandav”.
Amazon recently issued a public apology ‘to all who were hurt’ by ‘Tandav’ and said some offensive scenes had been removed.
India, the second most populous country in the world with 1.3 billion people, is a valuable market for Amazon and its competitors Netflix and Disney + Hotstar from Walt Disney Co.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, said at an event last year that Prime Video is doing well worldwide, but that it is nowhere better than India.
Netflix has announced 41 new shows and movies for 2021 in India, compared to about 30 new titles released in 2020.
‘TOO MUCH RISK’, ARRESTED FEAR
Unlike movies, content on video streaming platforms is not currently censored in India.
But some lawmakers and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu Nationalist Party say certain programs on Amazon and Netflix promote obscenity or harm religious beliefs.
A member of the ruling party’s youth party has filed a complaint with the police against Netflix, objecting to the scenes in the series ‘A Suitable Boy’ in which a Hindu girl kisses a Muslim boy against the background of a Hindu temple.
One source in the entertainment industry said that Netflix is closely monitoring Amazon’s “Tandav” business.
Netflix declined to comment.
One scene from ‘Tandav’ that was removed by Amazon after release was around a stage where a person acting as the Hindu god Shiva is looking for suggestions to enlarge his social media, after someone says that Lord Ram online a lot became popular.
Reverend religious characters were “manipulated and portrayed in a very cheap way”, the judge of the state court remarked while rejecting Purohit’s anticipatory bail.
However, the Supreme Court protected her from arrest subject to her cooperation in the case.
Her lawyer said Amazon is willing to cut more scenes from “Tandav” if necessary.
Among the biggest consequences of the controversy is the growing fear of arrests. Some producers ask for clauses in their contracts with streaming services to protect them from lawsuits.
“It’s just too much of a risk and it’s not worth the headache, especially if you’s threatened with jail,” said one producer.
Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Aditya Kalra and Euan Rocha; Additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Saurabh Sharma; Edited by Himani Sarkar